Social Category-Based Segmentation in the Labour Market in the Manufacturing Industries in India: From 2004-2005 to 2011-2012

Abstract

The paper looks into the trends of how labour market returns differ among the different social categories in the manufacturing sector in India over 2004- 2005 to 2011-2012. It find that despite a decline in the gap in shares of employment between forward caste and backward caste workers, the wage gap between them didn’t come down because of a rise in intra-occupational wage gap in the high-wage, high-skill occupations. The actual wage gaps between them are often an underestimation of the extent of deprivation. Among backward caste workers, scheduled caste workers are worse off than other backward caste workers. The labour market is more discriminatory against the former in urban areas compared with rural areas in the formal sector vis-a-vis the informal sector, and in public/private limited enterprises as against other enterprises.